NEW YORK — Joe Girardi, and the rest of his staff, has been quick not to label Bartolo Colon’s progress as a fluke. The 38-year-old with the surgically repaired throwing shoulder is widely considered a godsend in a rotation that desperately needed one of their offseason gambles to pay off.

Before tonight’s 7-3 loss to Toronto at Yankee Stadium nothing about Colon’s popping sinker and streamlined fastball were an aberration.

“It would be hard to call him a surprise anymore,” Girardi said before the game. “It’s a guy now that you expect it from. When you don’t get your great location, you’re a little bit shocked.”

That about described Girardi’s feelings when Colon (2-3, 3.77 ERA) lost control in a dreary sixth inning where he surrendered five of his six earned runs and the Blue Jays swung a 1-1 tie game to take a 6-1 lead with just a few quick swings.

With the bases loaded, Colon dug in against Eric Thames in the sixth and fired four straight four-seam fastballs outside the zone to welcome another run across the plate and extend the Blue Jays lead.

The next pitch, the fastball slipped again as Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia smacked a double that drove in three runs.

Colon would be done shortly after, giving up seven total hits and six earned runs while showing a rare glimpse of humanity amid a season that saw him playing well above his well-treaded frame.

“Bartolo’s been so good for us too,” Girardi said after the game. “He gave up a few hits and he walked a guy, and you don’t usually see that from Bartolo, walking guys, and it happened quick.”
Meanwhile, three RBI from Robinson Cano would not be nearly enough to settle the difference for the Yankees (25-21).

The game started on an ominous note as the Jays’ Jose Bautista belted his league-leading 19th home run just two pitches into his first at-bat. Colon expressed no interest in dusting the corner against one of the league’s best power hitters, offering a letter-high fastball that was hit over the 399-foot marker in left-center.

“Bautista is hitting the ball really good right now, but I can’t worry about one guy,” Colon said at his locker through an interpreter. “I have to worry about the other eight guys, too.”

“(Bautista’s) a tough out, the Yankees’ catcher Russell Martin said. “Everything he swings at is off the barrel so he’s definitely the guy you don’t want to beat you.”

From there, Colon seemed to settle down, giving up just one hit over the next four innings before the sixth, where everything unraveled.

Martin said he didn’t see any problems with Colon’s fastball as a warning sign leading in, and that on any other day it’s his best-located pitch, one he can keep in his back pocket for jams like those.

Yet there it was, one after another, missing the corner as Thames dropped his bat and trotted to first for the easiest RBI in baseball.

But on a day where everything seemed out of character for Colon this year, it was just as easy to chalk that inning up as a fluke, not a whole season.

“Just one tough inning,” Mark Teixeira said afterward. “We just couldn’t get the big out.”

NOTES

Girardi was not considering Nick Swisher as a pinch hitter for Jorge Posada when the Yankees mounted a brief charge late in yesterday’s game. He said he would have to wait until the team had a few more baserunners before he’d consider pulling Swisher off the bench.

Girardi said he doesn’t see anything wrong with Robinson Cano’s swing despite a lack of recent power.

“Maybe we’re not seeing the long ball as much as earlier, but he’s still being productive,” Girardi said.